Perforation spacing optimization for multi-stage hydraulic fracturing in Xujiahe formation: a tight sandstone formation in Sichuan Basin of China

Lu, Cong; Guo, Jianchun; Liu, Yuxuan; Yin, Jian; Deng, Yan; Lu, Qianli; Zhao, Xing

doi:10.1007/s12665-015-4366-y

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…With the increasing depletion of conventional oil and gas reservoirs, tight oil and gas reservoirs are becoming an area of increased research interest in the current geological community (Camp, 2011; Ghanizadeh et al., 2015a, 2015b; Yin and Gao, 2019). Recently, due to advances in microscale pore-throat characterization methods and horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques (Benzagouta, 2015; Fall et al., 2015; Lu et al., 2015; Nelson, 2009; Rezaee et al., 2012), significant achievements have been obtained in the exploration and development of tight oil and gas reservoirs globally, such as the Cardium Formation in the Alberta Basin (Fic and Pedersen, 2013), the Barnett Formation in the Fort Worth Basin (Hill et al., 2007), and the Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin (Ghanizadeh et al., 2015a,b; Shen et al., 2018). There are also plenty of tight oil and gas resources in China’s oil-bearing basins, for example, the Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin, the Carboniferous and Cretaceous Formations in the Tarim Basin, and the Xujiahe Formation in the Sichuan Basin (Wang et al., 2018; Yin et al., 2018; Zou et al., 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An improved method to characterize the pore-throat structures in tight sandstone reservoirs: Combined high-pressure and rate-controlled mercury injection techniques

Zhang

Shi

Tian

2020

Energy Exploration & Exploitation

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The pore-throat size determines the oil and gas occurrence and storage properties of sandstones and is a vital parameter to evaluate reservoir quality. Casting thin sections, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-pressure mercury injection and rate-controlled mercury injection are used to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the pore-throat structure characteristics of tight sandstone reservoirs of Xiaoheba Formation in the southeastern Sichuan Basin. The results show that the pore types include intergranular pores, intragranular dissolved pores, matrix pores, intercrystalline pores in clay minerals, and microfractures, and the pore-throat sizes range from the nanoscale to the microscale. The high-pressure mercury injection testing indicates that the pore-throat radius is in range of 0.004–11.017 µm, and the pore-throats with a radius >1 µm account for less than 15%. The rate-controlled mercury injection technique reveals that the tight sandstones with different physical properties have a similar pore size distribution (80–220 µm), but the throat radius and pore throat radius ratio distribution curves exhibit remarkable differences separately. The combination of the high-pressure mercury injection and rate-controlled mercury injection testing used in this work effectively reveals the total pore-throat size distribution in the Xiaoheba sandstones (0.004–260 µm). Moreover, the radius of the pore and the throat is respectively in range of 50–260 µm and 0.004–50 µm. The permeability of the tight sandstones is mostly affected by the small fraction (<40%) of relatively wide pore-throats. For the tight sandstones with good permeability (>0.1 mD), the larger micropores and mesopores exert a great influence on the permeability. In contrast, the permeability is mainly influenced by the larger nanopores. Furthermore, the proportion of narrow pore-throats in tight sandstones increases with reducing permeability. Although the large number of narrow pore-throat (<100 nm) makes a certain contribution to both reservoir porosity and permeability, they have contribution to the former is far more than to the latter.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An improved method to characterize the pore-throat structures in tight sandstone reservoirs: Combined high-pressure and rate-controlled mercury injection techniques

Zhang

Shi

Tian

2020

Energy Exploration & Exploitation

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“…The spacing between wellbore perforations has a significant impact on well production. Lu et al (2015) analyzed and verified this technology with data from a tight sandstone reservoir in Sichuan Basin of China.…”

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confidence: 91%

Unconventional gas resources in China

et al. 2015

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“…Tight sandstone is a reservoir with a low to ultra-low porosity and permeability (Becker et al., 2017; Lu et al., 2015; Zhou et al., 2018). Hydraulic fracturing is one of the most effective ways for enhancing oil and gas recovery and has been applied in tight sandstone oil and gas exploitation for years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies related to multi-stage fracturing in thick tight sandstone reservoirs have been conducted (Karpov et al., 2017; Li et al., 2018; Lu et al., 2015; Olson and Taleghani, 2009). Olson and Taleghani (2009) suggested that hydraulic fractures could propagate across natural fracture planes without deviation and without additional leak-off under certain conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A 3D-FEM fracture propagation model was adopted by Guo et al, (2015b) to simulate multi-cluster staged fracturing, which proved that a small cluster spacing would affect stress changes more severely. In addition, multi-stage fracturing with multi-perforation clusters preferentially produces complex fractures compared to multi-stage fracturing with single-perforation clusters (Lu et al, 2015). Moreover, the fixed-point multi-stage fracturing technique was adopted by Li et al (2018) to analyse the fracture propagation behaviour; based on the results, it was concluded that it is difficult to form a complex fracture system when the stress difference is higher than 6 MPa in the horizontal direction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A multi-perforation staged fracturing experimental study on hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation

Wei

Huang

Hao

et al. 2020

Energy Exploration & Exploitation

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Hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation are extremely important on deciding the production capacity and are crucial for oil and gas exploration and development. Based on a self-designed system, multi-perforation cluster-staged fracturing in thick tight sandstone reservoir was simulated in the laboratory. Moreover, the technology of staged fracturing during casing completion was achieved by using a preformed perforated wellbore. Three hydraulic fracturing methods, including single-perforation cluster fracturing, multi-perforation cluster conventional fracturing and multi-perforation cluster staged fracturing, were applied and studied, respectively. The results clearly indicate that the hydraulic fractures resulting from single-perforation cluster fracturing are relatively simple, which is difficult to form fracture network. In contrast, multi-perforation cluster-staged fracturing has more probability to produce complex fractures including major fracture and its branched fractures, especially in heterogeneous samples. Furthermore, the propagation direction of hydraulic fractures tends to change in heterogeneous samples, which is more likely to form a multi-directional hydraulic fracture network. The fracture area is greatly increased when the perforation cluster density increases in multi-perforation cluster conventional fracturing and multi-perforation cluster-staged fracturing. Moreover, higher perforation cluster densities and larger stage numbers are beneficial to hydraulic fracture initiation. The breakdown pressure in homogeneous samples is much higher than that in heterogeneous samples during hydraulic fracturing. In addition, the time of first fracture initiation has the trend that the shorter the initiation time is, the higher the breakdown pressure is. The results of this study provide meaningful suggestions for enhancing the production mechanism of multi-perforation cluster staged fracturing.

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Perforation spacing optimization for multi-stage hydraulic fracturing in Xujiahe formation: a tight sandstone formation in Sichuan Basin of China

Cited by 20 publications

References 22 publications

An improved method to characterize the pore-throat structures in tight sandstone reservoirs: Combined high-pressure and rate-controlled mercury injection techniques

An improved method to characterize the pore-throat structures in tight sandstone reservoirs: Combined high-pressure and rate-controlled mercury injection techniques

Unconventional gas resources in China

A multi-perforation staged fracturing experimental study on hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation

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